Abstract

Context: Diarrhea is a global epidemic. Majority of the populace in developing Countries including Nigeria depend on Napoleona imperialis as a safer, more effective and affordable alternatives for treatment of diarrhea.
Objective: This study evaluated the antidiarrheal potential of ethanol (leaf) extract and fractions of N. imperialis in Swiss albino mice.
Materials and methods: Acute toxicity test was performed to determine safe dose range before in vivo experiments. Castor-oil induced diarrhea and charcoal meal gastrointestinal motility test models were used. Antimicrobial activity on bacteria-implicated diarrhea, and HPLC analysis of the aqueous fraction (AF) were also evaluated.
Results: The result of the acute toxicity tests show that no death occurred at the test doses. Preliminary antimicrobial screening shows that the inhibitory zone diameter (IZD) of the extract has a weak antibacterial activity against sample organisms. The presence of procyanidin, 9-alpha-OH-pinoresinol, isoprunetin and ellagic acid derivatives in the aqueous fraction were highlighted by the HPLC analysis. The AF produced more significant (P

Key words: Napoleona imperialis, anti-diarrheal, antibacterial, gastrointestinal motility, castor oil, charcoal meal.